SYLVIIN.t:. 



53 



■J^' 



SUBALPINE WARBLER. 



Sylvia subalpina, Bonelli. 



At a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club on December 

 19th, 1894, Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe exhibited a specimen of this 

 Warbler, forwarded to him by Mr. J. Steele Elliott of Dudley, who 

 had shot it on the island of St. Kilda, in the Outer Hebrides, in 

 June of the same year. In 'The Zoologist,' 1895, p. 282, 

 Mr. Elliott says : — " I first noticed it haunting the Minister's garden 

 on June 13th, busily employing itself searching for food along a row 

 of young peas ; and it frequently flew to a parsnip in seed that grew 

 in one corner of the garden, and which seemed to attract a greater 

 number of insects. This little bird allowed people to approach 

 quite close to it; and remained throughout Sunday until the 

 following day, when I shot it in the presence of Mr. Fiddles and 

 Mr. McKenzie, the factor. It was at once placed in spirits and 

 forwarded direct to Mr. J. Cullingford, of Durham, for preservation. 

 Its sex could not be ascertained with certainty. Its presence was 

 probably caused by the great gale that blew across the island on 

 June 12th, from the south-west." 



The Subalpine Warbler, as its name implies, is a southern species ; 

 its nearest breeding-places being in the south-eastern districts of 

 France and in Savoy, where it arrives regularly about the middle of 

 April ; while it occasionally reaches Geneva and even Neuchatel. 

 In Spain I observed it in Murcia, and obtained birds, with nests 

 and eggs, from Malaga, as well as from the vicinity of Madrid ; 

 Col. Irby saw a small party at Cadiz on INIarch 27th, and the late 



